Can I call this a design study if I’m no designer? I like to draw, but I don’t think that makes me a designer. If someone bought me Adobe Indesign, or better yet the whole Creative Suite, I could figure it out. But could I create such things? Would someone take a picture? What makes good design? Lord knows.

Wednesday questions.

These designs drew me:

The simplicity of it all. The easy lines. Flowing static. Sometimes so basic you hear, “A child could do that.” It’s all about context, surely.

Outside the exit of the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood, St Petersburg, Russia.

Then you have the more ornate. More difficult to blend with others. The child argument fades. Curves, bends, flowers, stems. A pleasant chaos, like fractals.

The gate around the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood, St Petersburg, Russia.

Relief on the wall of Komsomolskaya metro station, Moscow, Russia.

Komsomolskaya metro station flowery border.

Returning to simplicity – the flag. An immediately recognizable narrative, for better or worse. Symbolic color, rarely understood. Shapes to rally fear, hope, and all else between. With all the talk of succession (Crimea, Scotland, Basque Country, Catalonia, etc.), a flag (re)designer might be a position more in demand.

Toothpick flags.

Finally, the simplicity of nature. The order of old. The work of the original proletariat – for the better of the hive. Motivated, somehow…